ARMENIAN CHILDREN’S FICTION IN “HASKER” AND “AGHBYUR” MAGAZINES DURING WORLD WAR I

Abstract

The given article is the first study of the Armenian children’s literature on the military theme, presented in the Armenian children’s and youth periodicals of Tiflis in 1914–1918. The similarities and differences between the children’s literature on these topics and the artistic reflection of the war in the magazines “Aghbyur” (“Source”) and “Hasker” (“Spikes”) are revealed. In the course of the analysis it has been disclosed that during World War I, military topics did not become dominant from a quantitative point of view, but materials of different genres and formats on the military topic were published in each issue of the magazines. Of the 258 pieces of fiction published in the Armenian children’s magazines “Aghbyur” and “Hasker”, 78 pieces (29.4 %) were on the topic of war. Along with this, we analyzed three chronotopic positions associated with the continuum of the surrounding reality: the Armenian environment, the environment of the Russian Empire and the foreign environment. The content and ideological emphases of the published works on the military theme were aimed at developing patriotic and humanistic feelings in children. However, the genocide of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire has left a mark on the nature of the perception of patriotism: the preservation of the historical homeland of the Armenian people in the memory of the new generation and the hope of returning back to their native lands.

Keywords: Armenian press, journalism, Russian Empire, Ottoman Empire, Armenian Genocide